Dear Colleagues,
The 16th World Congress of the WAIMH in Rome 2018 has its theme on the interplay between nature and nurture and its challenge for 3rd millennium Infant Mental Health. Our world has always been constantly changing, but perhaps never before has the rate of change been so fast. The big question is how do these changes affect us, our children and their children. Particularly some of the new and constantly developing technology we are using hold great promises, but at the same time also threat.This time our congress plenaries will address both old and new aspects of nature-nurture interplay. Our plenarists for Rome 2018 include Professor Massimo Ammaniti (Italy) Professor Jay Belsky (USA), Professor Hasse Karlsson (Finland) and Professor Jenny Radesky (USA). The plenaries present new data on prenatal stress and its effect on both the mother and the developing infant; how the use of smartphones, tablets and computers will affect child development during the early years; and,how our individual characteristics can affect our susceptibility to different environmental stressors. We have not forgotten the global changes in climate and world politics, as the Presidential Symposium will address the crisis facing refugee infants and their families in so many countries around the world.
As a novelty for this Congress we have created two Plenary Interfaces of Research and Clinical Work, where a researcher and a clinician will present on the same subject and, with the help from a moderator, will create an interesting discussion. One these interfaces will address prenatal stress and another will discuss how fathers influence the development of their sons. Our committee again proposes a range of ways in which you may be able to present your research, clinical work and other innovations. We have also tried to provide better structures for both clinical and scientific abstract submissions. So please, do feel welcome to submit your work to the 16th World Congress in Rome 2018 to be shared with your colleagues worldwide.
PRINT THE CALL FOR PAPERS
Authors
Kaija Puura
Finland
Chair of the Programme Committee
Campbell Paul
Australia
Miri Keren
Israel
David Oppenheim
Israel
Giampaolo Nicolais
Italy
Reija Latva
Finland
